Around 56 per cent of Qatar’s population is active on social media, there is an average of 50 million tweets per month, Riyadh ranks 10th globally among the cities with most tweets and in the UAE alone, Facebook enjoys 43 per cent penetration. These are just some statistics that reflect the fast changing consumer behavior patterns in news consumption and information exchange in the Middle East.
It’s common knowledge that adoption of social media tools is on the rise and people are no more dependent on the morning newspaper or evening bulletin to stay informed. Communication with audiences is taking place 24/7 and 140 characters is all it takes.
PR has grown manifold in this rapidly changing scenario. Expectations from communication professionals have gone beyond securing visibility to managing real time engagement with audiences using modern day communication tools.
The conventional PR agency model of relying only on media relations and securing coverage is obsolete and to stay relevant, the conventional mold needs to be broken.
Digital and social are recasting the dice for PR, blurring many lines, including the way they define content and who creates it. Anyone with an opinion and a smartphone is equipped to spark a narrative today. While traditional media and advertising are going through a top-to-bottom disruption as a consequence, digital’s impact on how public relations creates and puts out content has been less sharply etched. But that can be deceptive.
What matters, irrespective of whether it’s content for traditional media or on social, is that the message has to be consistent. All approaches have to be aligned to the client’s best interests and agencies need to have the in-house resources to make it happen. That is the true bottom-line.
We embraced this change at GOLIN, and by adopting new technologies and pushing creative boundaries, we are helping our clients adapt in a constantly changing world.This approach is also in line with the vision of Mr. Rafic Saadeh, Chairman Horizon Group of Companies, as he inspires us to constantly offer cutting edge creative services that leverage the latest technology.
We believe that relevance is the most important commodity of the social web. We drive relevance by monitoring conversations from our audience and reacting quickly with content that allows our clients to play an active role in the news agenda of the day. We do this through The Bridge, our holistic engagement network made up of 20 command centers across the world. In 2015, we will introduce The Bridge to our clients in MENA. We are confident that our clients will immensely benefit from this real time communications tool.
Our passion for identifying what specifically makes some brands more relevant than others is not limited to The Bridge alone. At Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2014, GOLIN partnered with one of the world’s most perennially fascinating celebrities, David Hasselhoff, to unveil a new approach to unraveling the mystery of brand relevance. Known as the Relevance Fingerprint, the new GOLIN approach is a data-driven analytics methodology for understanding the prevalence, intensity and qualitative dimensions of brand relevance. The development of these GOLIN tools are examples of how PR is evolving to now help marketers understand, map and manage the factors that changes the way brands connect with their consumers.
